SRI SRI PUBLICATIONS - Know Your Mind

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H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Know Your Mind

1 st edition: September 2011

Copyrights 2011 All rights reserved.

ePub Converted by Verse Innovation Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system without prior permission in written form from the publisher.

eISBN: 978 9 351 06636 1

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W hen will there be no questions? Questions will not exist when one has no intelligence or when the mind is at peace. That is a good thing. Isnt it? An excellent state!

It is impossible not to have any intelligence at all. Everybody has at least a little bit of intelligence. When you cross over intelligence and the mind gets into feelings and innocence, then no questions will arise. Even if a question arises, that question will be satisfied by small answers itself. Look at children. They ask something like where did this elephant come from and if you say it came from the forest, they just become silent. They agree with you. Isnt it?

All the questions in the mind should be converted to exclamations. That is why they say, Yo buddhi paratattva sa. That which is beyond the intellect is the Divine. You will not get the Divine if you attempt to catch the Divine through the intellect.

Thoughts arise, therefore thoughts have a source. If you go on a road, you can only see a small part of the road you cannot see the whole road. But if you are seated in an aircraft, then you can see the beginning and the end of the road from the aircraft. If you are seated in a car, you can only see a few hundred meters of the road. At the most you can see half a kilometer of the road. But from the aircraft you can see the whole road, from the beginning to its end.

In the same way, as our consciousness keeps expanding more and more, you get to know more about the past and the future. All this begins to happen naturally, but none of the happenings are great events in any case!

The important thing is to live in the present moment. The mind always swings between the past and the future. When this swinging stops, then the time stops too. That is our true nature. The mind is like a firefly which gets attracted towards light. The mind, like the firefly, is constantly searching for its source through various objects. When it gets surprised, it begins to search for its source. The moment it obtains the vision of its source, the mind vanishes. This is a technique of meditation.

You must have heard this story. Once, Lord Krishna developed a severe headache because there were too many gopis and they were constantly fighting about this and that. All this caused him a severe headache. Radha was seated near him and was pressing his head. Even that did not help Krishna.

Then Krishna said, Radha, stand on my head and put the whole weight of your body on my head. Radha agreed to this and stood on Krishnas head. The other gopis who saw this came running to her and said, Oh! Radha! What are you doing? You will go to hell. You are standing on the Lords head! Do you know what Radha replied?

Radha said, I am prepared to spend all my life in hell. If my Lord can be relieved of his headache even for two minutes by this act of mine, then that is sufficient for me. I am ready to spend my whole life in hell just for those two minutes.

All of them there appreciated Radhas devotion and the depth of her devotion. That was because every cell of Radha was dedicated only to Krishna. For her there was nothing but Krishna in the whole world. She was totally immersed in Krishna. Radhas love was so complete. Why was Radha only the most favourite of Krishna amongst all the gopis? Why did Krishna love Radha the most? This the gopis understood.

Radha was totally selfless. She had nothing inside her. That is why Radha is first and then comes Govinda Radhe Govinda! Radha would breathe Krishna. Radha obtained a higher state than Krishna. So if you ever wish to worship Krishna, then first you need to become Radha and then worship Krishna.

If you want to worship Rama, you should become Hanuman first and then worship Rama. Rama could not have won the war without the help of Hanuman. Rama required Hanumans help. That is why Hanuman is greater than Rama.

If you want to be a servant then be a servant like Hanuman. If you want to be a lover, then be a lover like Radha. If you want to do penance, then do penance like Parvati. To perform the worship of Shiva, we have to become Parvati first and then worship Shiva. Parvati had only one desire in her, to obtain Shiva.

Hanuman is said to have 14 kalaas or digits whereas Rama had only 12 kalaas or digits. Hanuman would breathe Rama. Hanuman is greater than Rama. That is why he could carry Rama on his shoulders and help him. Isnt it? Who else can help? Hanuman became a devotee and therefore much more powerful.

Y ou wear good clothes and go out. It could be new or neatly ironed. However the cloth may be, you wear it and go out. What happens then? It becomes dirty. Then you have to wash it.Isnt it?

Similarly you bathe and apply scent all over your body. How long will it stay? It will stay for a little while. Then you have to take a bath again the next day. Isnt it? Say, you do not have bath for two or three days, what happens by the third day? Nobody will come near you on the third day. Oh! I just had my bath the day before yesterday. I have become dirty again. So my bath of the day before yesterday was in vain. If you go on in this manner, then what is there to say! If anybody goes on in this manner you will call them mad.

Our mind is also similar to this. Isnt it? Once you bathe your body, you have to bathe it all over again the next day. Sometimes you may have to bathe that same evening. If it is a very hot summer day, then you may have to bathe two to three times. If it is winter, bathing the next day will be sufficient.

Nobody says that they will only bathe if their body is dirty and greasy. Nobody keeps sniffing themselves and then decide to have a bath. Whether there is a smell or not, whether the body is dirty or clean, we bathe everyday. Isnt it? Similarly nobody will take off their clothes to see whether it is dirty and if it needs washing. We will not wait till the whole cloth is so dirty that the colour of clothes is not at all visible and then only decide to wash the clothes. What do we do even if a little dirt is visible on the cloth? We wash the cloth. But does the dirt belong to us? The dirt is of the cloth isnt it? Dirt is the nature of cloth.